High quality digital cameras have to a large extent replaced film cameras. However, like film cameras, with digital cameras much attention has been placed by the camera industry on the size and quality of lenses which are used on the camera. Individuals seeking to take quality photographs are often encouraged to invest in large bulky and often costly lenses for a variety of reasons. Among the reasons for using large aperture lenses is their ability to capture a large amount of light in a given time period as compared to smaller aperture lenses. Telephoto lenses tend to be large not only because of their large apertures but also because of their long focal lengths. Generally, the longer the focal length, the larger the lens. A long focal length gives the photographer the ability to take pictures from far away.
While large lenses have many advantages with regard to the ability to capture relatively large amounts of light compared to smaller lenses, they can be used to support large zoom ranges, which may be implemented using optical or digital techniques, and often allow for good control over focus, there are many disadvantages to using large lenses.
Large lenses tend to be heavy requiring relatively strong and often large support structures to keep the various lenses of a camera assembly in alignment. The heavy weight of large lenses makes cameras with such lenses difficult and bulky to transport. Furthermore, cameras with large lenses often need a tripod or other support to be used for extended periods of time given that the sheer weight of a camera with a large lens can become tiresome for an individual to hold in a short amount of time.
In order to overcome some of the disadvantages of cameras with large single lens assemblies, the use of multiple smaller camera modules in a single camera device may be used. The use of multiple small camera modules allow for more light to be captured than if a single small camera module was used with the image of different portions of a scene area captured by different modules potentially being combined to form an image of a scene area of interest. In order to support the capture of a relatively large scene area, the overlap of scene portions captured by a plurality of different camera modules may be small or non-existent. While this may be desirable to enable the capture of a large scene area, in the case of fixed camera modules and a high level of zoom, much of the scene area captured by many of the fixed camera modules may go unused as corresponding to scene areas outside the scene area of interest to be captured for a user selected zoom level, e.g., a high level of zoom.
It would be desirable if methods and/or apparatus could be developed which would use camera modules more effectively than devices with fixed camera modules. In particular, it would be desirable if methods and/or apparatus could be developed which would allow significant portions of images captured by different camera modules of a camera device to contribute to capturing a scene area of interest even as the zoom level is increased. While not necessary for all embodiments, it would be desirable if in at least some embodiments some or all of the camera modules of the camera device avoided the use of moveable mirrors which, while having some advantages for particular applications, can also lead to complexity in terms of camera module design and/or construction.